


Tell Me

by Zoe_Dameron



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Murder, Psychological Torture, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 19:06:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11191479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoe_Dameron/pseuds/Zoe_Dameron
Summary: Running on instinct, Poe broke cover, charging forward with his blaster raised, aiming a shot at the aggressor’s heart.Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he watched the blue bolt find its target. Poe held his breath and waited for the shot to connect.





	Tell Me

_Tell me._

From Poe’s position beyond the dunes, he watched the two men argue. Watched the man in black reach down for his lightsaber, igniting it and raising it to Lor San Tekka.

Running on instinct, Poe broke cover, charging forward with his blaster raised, aiming a shot at the aggressor’s heart.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he watched the blue bolt find its target. Poe held his breath and waited for the shot to connect.

His heart raced. His own pulse was pounding in his ears.

            No, it wasn’t –

He felt miles away but somehow close enough to see the way the bolt shredded the black fabric around the man’s shoulder, sending him stumbling backwards.

Poe watched the lightsaber fall to the ground and extinguish itself as Lor San Tekka stepped away, unharmed.

He raised his blaster again and hastily fired, nearly knocking himself back from the recoil he hadn’t prepared for.

The shot connected quicker this time, exploding against the man in black’s chest, inches from the initial hit.

Poe watched the smoke bleed out of the holes in the man’s heart for a self-indulgent split second before turning his blaster to the nearest Stormtrooper, one of dozens.

He re-planted his feet, steadying himself as his finger hovered over the trigger, adrenaline forcing its way through his veins. This wasn’t over. He still had to neutralize the surrounding threat to the civilians, he had to –

The nearest Stormtrooper dropped their own blaster, raising both arms in surrender. Poe blinked in surprise and confusion, trying to suppress a growing pain behind his eyes.

One by one he watched the invading battalion relieve themselves of their weapons and throw their hands in the air.

The villagers, seeming to sense an opportunity, took over from there, subduing each First Order attacker that had just rounded them up in the center of the city to be massacred.

Poe was still trying to catch up to what had just happened when Lor San Tekka raced to meet him, throwing his arms around the Resistance pilot and embracing him in a tight but gentle hug.

“Well done, son!” he shouted, smiling wide at a bewildered Poe. “The General would be _so proud_ of you.”

In the distance, Poe watched as the villagers herded up the remaining Stormtroopers. Women and children were smiling as they urged the troops forward, encouraging them to drop to their knees as others leveled their blasters down at them and waited for instruction. A chrome-covered Stormtrooper was pulled out of one of the ships and brought towards Poe and Lor San Tekka, roughly forced to her knees in front of Poe by the old man.

            No, Lor San Tekka would never, he’d –

A chrome-covered Stormtrooper was pulled out of one of the ships and brought towards Poe and Lor San Tekka, and she slowly lowered herself to her knees at Lor San Tekka’s instruction.

She removed her helmet and shook out the short blonde hair that had been plastered to the sides of her head. “We surrender to the Resistance,” she said in a soft, powerful voice, holding out her hands as two armed villagers clasped binders to her wrists.

“She looks to be the leader,” said Lor San Tekka, smiling. “Seems like everything’s been taken care of, thanks to you.”

Poe nodded back, forcing a smile of his own as his heart raced and his head pounded against his skull. Resting his hands on his knees, he closed his eyes to try to get his vision to stop spinning. He took long, deep breaths but still felt like he wasn’t getting enough oxygen. Behind his eyes he felt a growing pressure, like altitude sickness, like he had been flying an old planet-bound aircraft and had drifted too high.  

Above him, Lor San Tekka seemed unfazed. “We may have a victory here, son, but if the First Order know the map is here they won’t stop looking for it. You’d best be getting back to the Resistance with it before more show up.”

“I thought you just said everything was taken c–”

“Where is the map now?” San Tekka asked with concern, staring directly at Poe. “I know you were protecting it from the First Order but we stopped them. Where is it? You can tell me.”

_Tell me._

Poe opened his mouth to speak but hesitated, unsettled by the old man’s change in tone and urgency. This didn’t feel correct. Their victory was too easy, too clean.

A younger man from the village came up behind him and clapped him on the shoulder with a hearty laugh, holding Poe tight against him, fingers digging into his skin, edging towards pain.

“You can trust Ol’ Lor here, Poe Dameron. Wasn’t he the one who gave you the map in the first place?”

Poe felt the pain behind his eyes flare up again and he choked out a breath. The villager just smiled back at him, grip tight on Poe’s arm as Poe tried to wriggle out of his hold. “Listen, guys, I –”

“You don’t have to tell us,” San Tekka interjected. “In fact, you should probably call the General and let her know your status instead.”

Poe shook his head and instantly regretted it as he was nearly knocked to the ground by the way his vision rocked back and forth like a ship caught in a storm. He pushed down the bile that was rising in his throat, eyes pleading for someone, anyone, to notice he was clearly unwell.

“My ship, they – they shot it. Don’t think the comms will work.”

Lor San Tekka’s smile persisted. “I have a direct line to the General. No need for your ship.”

Poe tried counting his breaths as he was led to one of the nearby huts – apparently Lor San Tekka’s, though it was much closer than he remembered – and thankfully given a soft pillow to sit on. The forceful villager from earlier had disappeared, nodding to both men on his way out.

He was alone again, with Lor San Tekka, a communication relay set out on the table between them. Poe hadn’t seen whoever had left it there.

“Well? Go ahead, son. Time is valuable here. Give the General a call.”

Poe took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to ground himself to make his next move without the influence and prodding of those around him. This all felt familiar somehow, twisted and distorted and incomplete, like a story only half-written. Where Lor San Tekka’s muted grace had once been was replaced something closer to a manic drive to get Poe’s information back to the Resistance.

            No, not back to the Resistance. Not on a _ship_ , to a communicator, to –

“Aren’t you going to call the General? Let her know you’re safe and I’m safe and that you have the map?”

            No, this was wrong.

            Why wouldn’t they be safe? Why would she assume otherwise?

Poe waved a dismissive hand at the old man as the other clutched his temple, trying to stop the ache that had started as a trickle and was now flooding his senses. He hissed in pain as he doubled over, coughing up blood.

“You are wasting time, Poe. Call the General. Tell her where you’ve put the map.” Lor San Tekka’s face had grown cold, his eyes narrowed into a look of barely-restrained malice.

_Tell her._

_Tell me._

Poe cried out. “No! You’re not – this isn’t – _ah_!” Pain erupted through his head again, wrenching a choked-off sound out of his throat. He felt detached from his body now, ready to burst out from his own skin like some larval creature finding its new form.

“Tell me where you put the map, Poe.” Lor San Tekka’s mouth hung slack, blood coating his teeth. His lightless eyes rolled dully in their sockets.

“N-no,” Poe grunted out, pain flaring in the root of his brain, engulfing him. He fell backwards off his seat, sent sprawling onto his back, limbs impossibly immobilized at his sides.

_Where is the map?_

_Tell me._

_Tell me._

The pain was immeasurable now, firing through all nerves between his head and his toes and back again. It seemed endless, like it was all he had ever known. A rough season passing through a lifetime of agony.

He choked back another strangled-off breath, managing to grunt out what he had intended as “the Resistance will not be intimidated by you,” though for all he knew it just sounded like the screaming that came before and after it.

Lor San Tekka’s lifeless form was standing over Poe’s pain-wracked body now, watching him through those dead eyes. Poe could see the viscera that spilled out of Lor San Tekka’s side, the wound left uncauterized by a lightsaber that had never existed.

            A trick. This was all –

Poe managed a small, acceptant chuckle before the pain overwhelmed him and he drifted into the loving embrace of unconsciousness.

Above him, Kylo Ren roared with anger. “No!” he shouted, reaching for his lightsaber out of habit before clenching and stilling his hand.

“IT-000, revive him.” His voice was low, demanding, predatory. “And give him another dose of Bavo Six. He is still too resistant.”

Kylo Ren stepped out of the way as the interrogation droid hovered towards the prisoner, drawing out a syringe of blue liquid that sank easily into the pilot’s arm. Poe stirred slightly, eyes still pressed closed, blood dribbling lazily down his temple.

Ren raised his hand and began again.

_Tell me._

From Poe’s position beyond the dunes, he watched the two men argue. Watched the man in black reach down for his lightsaber, igniting it and raising it to Lor San Tekka.

 

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I've read a retelling of the ol' interrogation scene, so here we are. <3


End file.
